artist profile

Sung

born

1984

lives and works

Chiang Mai, Thailand

education

BFA, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2007

about the artist

Young, pretty things with doe eyes, cherub cheeks, and velvety hair populate the canvases of Sung. Set against fairytale landscapes or within interiors reminiscent of plush Victorian settings, her protagonists go about their girlish pastimes or domestic duties clad in splendid princess gowns. Rendering her fantastical world complete, Sung then proceeds to sprinkle among the ribbons, flowers, and small animals disturbing dashes of horror and oblique insinuations of violence. Subverting expectations and upsetting proprieties, Sung denies her easy membership to the cartoon generation by drawing quietly uncomfortable and, consequently, endlessly intriguing pictures. Much in the spirit of Yoshitomo Nara’s lone toddlers or Aya Takano’s blushing nymphs, a cursory impression of vulnerability is but a portal into the unexpected. Specializing in painting, the artist presented her first solo exhibition at Greenberg Van Doren in New York, USA, and has participated in group shows within Thailand and abroad, including Roundabout, which traveled from the City Wellington Gallery in New Zealand to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.